Gravity turnover



w; c. COOPER 3,388,812

GRAVITY TURNOVER.

June 18, 1968 s Sheets- Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 10, 1965 H'CLL YINVENTOR William CCooper M46451 K. W

AGENT June 18, 1968 w, P R 3,388,812

GRAVITY TURNOVER Filed Dec. 10, 1965 v a Sheets- Sheet 2 INVENTOR Will'g'dm C.Coop.er

June IS, 1968 Filed Dec.

w. c. COOPER GRAVITY TURNOVER I Z 1 i0 L...

a Sheets-Shani INVENTOR. William Coopgf.

u ieawew' AGENT United States Patent ce 3,388,812 GRAVITY TURNOVER William C. Cooper, Royal Oak, Mich., assignor to The Budd Company, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Dec. 10, 1965, Ser. No. 512,969 Claims. (Cl. 214-4) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An apparatus for turning an article over by means of gravity and including a positive assist arm for contacting the article during dropping movement thereof to assure that the article is inverted during such movement.

This invention relates to a gravity turnover device, particularly for inventing a brake drum, and has for an object the provision of improvements in this art.

It has heretofore been proposed to invert articles by feeding them successively into a tiltable receptacle where their weight causes the receptacle to shift its position from horizontal to vertical and dump the article therefrom in an expected inverted position. However, the action is not positive and there may be many instances, especially with articles of certain shapes, where the article is not inverted. Automobile brake drums are articles which are so shaped as to be uncertain of being inverted by ordinary gravity overweighted turnover devices.

It is, therefore, one of the particular objects of the present invention to provide an improved article-over balanced gravity turnover device having means for causing the article to be positively forced from the tiltable container in inverted position when the container tilts over with the article.

Another object is to provide article-ejecting means of a simple form for causing articles to be positively inverted.

The above and other objects of the invention, as well as certain features of novelty and advantages, will be apparent from the following description of an exemplary embodiment, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a turnover installation comprising a pair of turnover devices feeding out brake drums after inversion to a common off-take conveyor;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation taken on the line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal section and elevation taken on the line 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a view like FIG. 3 but showing the parts in a partly tilted position;

FIG. 5 is a view like FIGS. 3 and 4 but showing the parts in a further tilted position;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged transverse elevation taken on the line 6-6 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a transverse elevation taken on the line 7-7 of -FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 1, two turnover devices A and B take articles from two feed-in conveyors C and D and, after inverting them, feed them down upon inclined chutes E and F from which they drop to an upwardly inclined belt conveyor G which elevates them and deposits them on an ofitake belt conveyor H.

The feed-in conveyor C or D is provided with spaced belts for feeding articles, such as brake drums W, successively and separately into a tiltable container 10 which is mounted to turn on a journal axis 11, a head frame 12 supporting the journals and providing vertical adjustment (not shown) and horizontal adjustment, as at 13, on a base frame 14.

3,388,312 Patented June 18, 1968 The drums W comprise an outer cylindrical portion W1 and a head W2 which may project, as shown, below the central portion of the cylindrical portion.

The drums are fed successively and separately along the conveyor C or D with the head disposed lowermost between the spaced belts of the conveyor and with the open end of the drums disposed uppermost into the turnover devices A or B.

Each tiltable container 10 is provided with spaced rails 15 having vertical side-flanges 16 and securement means 17 to a plate-like body of the container.

At its front end the tiltable container 10 is provided with an end stop plate 18 having vertical adjustment means, as at 19, for accommodating drums of different axial lengths. The end stop plate has a short rearwardly projecting flange 20 which overlies the forward edge of the upper open end of the drum. The vertical adjustment assures that the flange 20 will overlie the top forward edge of the drum no matter what its axial length. This holding flange comprises part of the means which are provided for positively inverting the drum when it is tilted over with the container.

The other part of the positive inverting means comprises a fixed projecting member 21 adjustably secured, as at 22, to the head frame 12 in a position to engage the head of a drum as it tilts over and to push its trailing edge up outwardly from the container. Since the forward edge-which has become the lower edge after tilting-is held against sliding out of the container by the flange 2d, the action of the projecting member 21 causes a positive inverting action on the drum from its lower position when the container is disposed vertically.

The drum heads normally have fairly large hub holes so the pusher member 21 has an outer end which is wide enough to span the hub hole of the head yet narrow enough to clear the side rails16 of the container.

The container is provided with a weight-adjustable counter-Weight 23, secured as at 24 to a member 25 of the container, for accommodating drums of different Weights and assuring that the container will return to its starting position after one drum has been discharged, ready to receive another drum. The weight 23 is cupshaped to contain variable amounts of easily meltable metal, like lead, for varying the amount of counterweight. I

An adjustable stop 26 is engaged by a rounded portion of the member 25 to halt the tilting of the container in its return or generally horizontal position.

An adjustable stop 27 is engaged by the front edge of the container to halt the tilting of the container in its forward or vertical position.

FIG. 3 shows the container in its generally horizontal position after a brake drum W has been deposited there in. The container has enough tilt in the top position to cause the drum to slide down to the front stop plate 18 of the container with the top of its front edge underlying the overhanging flange 20.

FIG. 4 shows the container and drum in partly tilted position with the fixed projecting member 21 just engaging the head of the drum.

FIG. 5 shows a further tilted position with the front edge of the drum held by the flange 20 and the member 21 having raised the drum at the rear edge to cause it to be positively inverted. In broken lines the earlier and later positions of the drum are shown. Here it is seen that the drum is ejected from the container in fully inverted position before the container reaches its fully vertical position.

After the drum has been discharged the container is returned to its initial generally-horizontal position by the counterweight 23 ready to receive another drum which 3 at the proper time is fed thereon by feed-in conveyor C or D.

It is thus seen that the invention provides a simple, eifective, and durable device for inverting articles by their own weight with full assurance that every article will be fully and cleanly inverted.

While one embodiment of the invention has been described for purposes of illustration, it is to be understood that there may be various embodiments and modifications within the general scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. A gravity turnover device, comprising in combination, a. container mounted to tilt on a horizontal axis and having a weight distribution such as to stand normally in a generally horizontal position but tilted downwardly forwardly sufliciently to cause an article deposited therein to slide to its forward end, the container tilting downwardly to a vertical position when an article is disposed therein, means for feeding an article into the container, an edge retaining means for holding the front edge of the article during downward tilting of said container, and turnover assisting means for engaging a bottom portion of the article behind and below its forward edge when the article is tilted over in the container for moving the article away from said container whereby the article is pivoted about the retained front edge by gravity and the turnover assist means as it is removed from the container, thereby assuring a turnover of the article as it falls therefrom.

2. A gravity turnover device as set forth in claim 1,

mounted on said container to accommodate articles of different depth at the front edge.

4. A gravity turnover device comprising in combination, a container mounted to tilt on a horizontal axis and having a weight distribution such as to stand normally in a generally horizontal position but tilted downwardly forwardly sutficiently to cause an article deposited therein to slide to its forward end, said container tilting to a vertical position when an article is disposed therein, said container includes spaced rails for accommodating between them a lower depending portion of an article, means for feeding an article into the container, and turnover assisting means for engaging an article behind and below its forward edge when the article is tilted over in the container for positively forcing the article into an inverted position when it falls out of the container, said turnover assisting means comprising a fixed projection engaged by the depending portion of an article at a stage in its tilting movement.

5. A gravity turnover device as set forth in claim 4, further characterized by the fact that said projection is provided with means to adjust the position of its articleeng-aging end to accommodate articles with depending portions of different depth.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,519,154 12/1924 Mitton.

1,576,027 3/1926 Becker 214-130 1,745,381 2/1930 Ray 214l30 2,041,451 5/1936 Alling 214-1 X ROBERT G. SHERIDAN, Primary Examiner.

GERALD M. FORLENZA, Examiner.

F. E. WERNER, Assistant Examiner. 

